“Outage compensation” and fake benefit payments may become one of scammers' main lures

Scammers are adapting their schemes ever more quickly to the events that concern Ukrainians most. That is why topics such as energy supply, social assistance, compensation and government payments may be widely exploited to steal banking details.

This was reported by Anna Dovhalska, Deputy Chairperson of the Management Board of GLOBUS BANK.

The scheme usually revolves around a message announcing a supposedly new government or local assistance programme. People are invited to follow a link, fill in a form, “verify their identity” or enter their card details to receive the money.

According to the banker, the danger lies in the fact that such messages may appear almost simultaneously with genuine news about payments, the energy situation or social programmes, making the fake offer seem psychologically convincing.

Therefore, any information about compensation or government assistance should be verified directly through official sources rather than by following a link from a messaging app, an advertisement or an unfamiliar Telegram channel.

“Scammers adapt to current circumstances very quickly. There are power outages — and suddenly there is “compensation for outages”. There is news about social support — and “urgent payments” start appearing. Missile terror and power outages do not cause fraud in themselves, but they create very “fertile ground” for it,” Anna Dovhalska warned.